XVI.
Departure
"Cedric Castelbre deflected my attack. He pushed it away, knocked it into the crowd like it was nothing!" Kogar hissed.
He stood before the chamber of Haketh. His eye twitched. He cleared his throat, and ran his hand through his short hair.
Rykaedi sat in the seat at the head of the table with a coy grin stuck onto her face.
But his attempt to stifle his rage was futile: "He stopped my strikes, and his… his… Faunia Vleren, and that other whore… they put their filthy hands all over me."
"Kogaaaar…" She chuckled.
"That's funny to you, Rykaedi? My attack is silent. Undetectable. A man sensed it—a man turned it around."
Then, with a shout, "BRING THEM IN," he gestured to the hall's great doors.
Throkos pushed them open and emerged into the meeting chamber. He tugged hard on the long chain trailing behind him, and brought three female prisoners into the room, wrapped in plainclothes with their eyes bound shut.
Immediately, all three of them fell dead without a sound. Without protest.
"None of you sensed that. But that boy turned my own attack back at me. Do any of you understand what this means?"
Rykaedi and Throkos were silent. Not in awe or suspense, but disinterest.
"Cedric Castelbre wields Dyosius. He is the greatest enemy of our time. He is a threat to order. A threat to chaos. He holds full sway over all—Evra, too. And Azafel, should he wish it."
"But Auctdos Munor is within my hands." Rykaedi said with another bright grin. Kogar's eyebrows furrowed. Then she continued, "And no fool would challenge Azafel, we all know that it's a losing battle. If you fear for your life, why not have Jirtu design a device of undying—"
Her head fell suddenly. It hit the table with an unceremonious thunk.
Throkos lifted his gaze to Kogar, who still stared at the dead Rykaedi in fury.
And only a moment later, her head rose again. Just as they knew it would.
"See what I'm… oh, what a headache…" She rubbed her forehead and laughed, "I don't fear death. Why should I? And I've faced Cedric Castelbre; he's overly ambitious, like Jirtu. Hit either of them hard enough over the head with a mace and that's it for them, without all of their fancy devices." Rykaedi feigned a knock against her head.
"I thought him unworthy of physical strain. Next time I won't be so daft."
"Your hubris causes you to underestimate your opponent, love. That's what killed Algirak."
"Hubris implies that my ego outweighs my power. I assure you that they're both perfectly balanced…"
"So says he who loses to men." Rykaedi smiled and rested her head atop her interlocked fingers.
Kogar snorted once, then turned and left through the same grand doors.
Throkos stepped out of his path, then waited for the double doors to swing shut before he turned to Rykaedi and asked through his respirator, "His presence does not bother you?"
She smiled. "Kogar is a toddler with the powers of a god. A man and his friends toy with him a bit and he goes over the edge to the point of ripping a hole straight through Evra's finest defense—the leyline barrier. And not just one, but two!"
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Throkos did not see the comedy of it.
"What's the worst he can do, rend a plane full of animals apart? Kill a few loose Etherians? In the end, all he does is futile, so long as I hold control of Auctdos Munor."
"The Petals are connected—"
"But he doesn't know. We've only lost one, perhaps with that we'll see Evra's influence grow."
Rykaedi stood and laughed again as she crossed the chamber to the corpses waiting by the door. She picked up the limp limbs of each of them, looked closely at their faces and complexions, and then shrugged in disinterest.
"Couldn't you have picked… better candidates for a body?"
"Are these not satisfactory?"
"I believe my request was for Calamon's most beautiful women. Which of these even comes close to my current form?"
"Is it their skins? Or—"
"Throkos, are you not a man?" she stood up to face him directly. "Are you not flesh and blood under all of that baggage, hiding behind your Etherian?"
His eyes narrowed.
"Or did you think I didn't know?"
"What do you intend to do?"
She smiled like a child. "Nothing. I just like to know. But next time, don't disappoint me."
Twentieth of Dectis [5], 207th Year of The Calamonian Age
“Come to the outskirts of Calamon before you leave. Past the western gate, where you aren't seen.” Those were the only parting instructions Cedric had given to Faunia before he left the infirmary that day.
So she did; she left by the gate that she had first entered Calamon through and walked just far enough to where she had entered the forest until she left behind those eager crowds vying for entry to the grandiose city.
There was still a dark spot in the sky over the Third Petal. It would likely be there forever, as a sign to the dangers of Etherians.
It wasn't long before a patch of brightly-flowered foliage ahead rustled apart, and Cedric stepped forward in his familiar leather kit.
"Did you find me, or am I finding you?" she asked, half-joking.
"I found you. There's a dull trace of esera that Tirolith leaves behind, mostly because she's still healing you. Silence it."
Faunia smiled meekly as her light-headedness set in for a moment. She shuddered. Cedric stepped over and placed a hand upon her shoulder. "I'm fine. Why'd you ask me to come here?"
"I wanted to test one thing before you left for Alisa."
"Sure thing."
Cedric walked away until he was about twenty paces back, unobstructed by the trees and the uneven ground. "Strike me with Tirolith."
"Huh?"
"Any way you see fit: a blast, a bolt, a mental strike… give it a shot."
"Won't Kogar hunt us?"
"We'll be gone as soon as we're done here. I won't be back in Calamon for a little while… though, not as long as you'll be gone."
"Okay." she took a deep breath. "Prepare yourself."
Cedric summoned his Sylvet blade and held it aloft.
Immediately, he saw it: a brief visage of Tirolith behind Faunia's shoulder. It was so fast that he wasn't surprised he'd never noticed before.
She can't cast without appearing, even briefly?
Then came the ice bolt.
But Cedric had expected that. Even more importantly—he felt it.
The air in front of him warped. The bolt of ice struck something hard, then shot back twice as fast at Faunia.
She flinched. Before it hit her, it melted away, leaving her to get sprayed with water.
"Cedric, that was… how did you do that…?" She gasped.
By the time she looked back to where he stood, he was gone. He had escaped into the woods after that, on one of Serkukan's few remaining breaths.
So I was right.
There's something else going on here…
A glimmer in the sky signaled what he already knew was approaching.
And no more can we escape him.
“Serkukan… make her scarce.”
The beast could only growl as he was forced again to comply with his master’s order, to the detriment of his own life…
*